BANGALORE: The Karnataka State Quality Assessment Organisation (KSQAO), which functions under the department of public instruction, has decided to give grading to the schools, government as well as private.
KSQAO assesses the quality of education by collecting information from students in class 1 to 10 of government schools. This will be implemented on a pilot basis from the next academic year. This will be similar to the accreditation given by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) to colleges and universities across the country.
A senior official from KSQAO said to begin with, they would give accreditation to those schools which come forward voluntarily. However, this year they are planning to restrict the number of schools to 100. Later, it will be made mandatory for all schools. The official said the accreditation would have 100 different criteria, including infrastructure and teaching staff.
The official said they would set up an expert committee consisting of academicians, teachers, technical experts and a KSQAO official.
This will be first such initiative in India.
“When NAAC started, not many colleges or universities showed interest. But now, it has become mandatory,” the official added.
Different gradings Official sources told Express that there will be separate grading systems for government and private schools.
How will it help government schools? There are around 49,000 government schools in the state. The conditions of government schools have improved compared with a few years ago. “The gradings will give a new image to government schools. The better the grade, the more children will be admitted to government schools. This is also an attempt to popularise government schools,” a department official said.